Oden Adventures

This was our first July in Sacramento, so naturally our first 4th of July (or "four-cha-ly" as Vianne calls it) here, too.  I was a bit bummed to find out that Natomas doesn't do anything special for the day; as it's part of Sacramento, it assumes (I guess?) that its residents all go to Tahoe or want to cram in a stadium with thousands of other people.  This small town girl does/wants neither.  

But there's a city north of here, Woodland, where we shop at Costco so are somewhat familiar with, that reportedly had some festive goings-on, and when I awoke on the 4th feeling particularly Canby-Days-sick, I decided to hop in the car with the kids and head up there.  They'd been up since the crack of dawn & by some ungodly hour like 7:00 a.m., we'd already gotten our outfits on & read all our holiday books & even searched Amazon & Netflix for some kind of holiday-appropriate show (to no avail). 

So we left for Woodland's bike parade with plenty of time to navigate anticipated traffic & parking issues.  The parade was on Main St., so when I got to Main St., I kept driving down waiting for a blockade to appear, to run into a detour and see crowds gathered.  But none of these arose.  There was one block where there were 10 or so folks milling about, so I turned off on a side street where there was one other car parked and we walked down to where we'd seen the small gathering.  Within a few minutes, a group of patriotic bikers emerged from a plaza, and by this point maybe 25 people had gathered to watch.

Don't get me wrong: it was adorable. It just was also a bit laughable, thinking I was going to have trouble parking & may be stuck in leaving traffic for an hour.  Apparently when you do a bike parade in some towns, it means just bikes, not the other parade elements, and the parents are all walking alongside the bikes, therefore this doesn't leave a lot of folks to watch the parade, just a few willing grandparents and any Canby transplants desperate for small-town charm.

So the bikers headed a few blocks down to a park, where the fun really started.  There was a gazebo with a band playing Americana music, there were bouncy houses and a playground and free snow cones and games and crafts.  And I tell ya, this Mama was SOLD.  It was awesome.  The kids were thrilled and my heart was filled with small-town joy.  Maybe the best part was that the large crowd of locals only stayed for about a half four, so by about 10:45 (the parade had started at 10:00) all the activities were going strong but there were only about 30 people milling about.  So we got snow cones (there had previously been a huge line) and made crafts and Vianne got the princess bouncy house to herself for like 15 minutes.  

Anyway, hooray, Woodland, CA!  You made this Mama's 4th of July morning.